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The following is a shocking, scary e-mail sent to Wisconsin GOP senators last night at around 9:30 pm, shortly after the Senate passed an anti-union bill. Not only does the e-mail threaten the senators with death, but it also vows “your familes [sic] will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks.”

Local station WTMJ in Milwaukee obtained the e-mail, and has redacted the sender’s name pending an investigation by the police (emphasis added and spelling and grammar mistakes have not been corrected):

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won’t tell you all of them because that’s just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it’s necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We Will “get rid of” (in which I mean kill) you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel that it’s worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!

WTMJ confirmed police are investigating several death threats, including the e-mail above.

Wisconsin GOP senators were told toe flee the Capitol almost immediately after their vote because police said “it was not safe.”

As we get a glimpse of the hate and murderous venom that occupies the of the collectivist, we’re reminded of some ideas that noted economist Hayek wrote us in “The Road to Serfdom”..

A comment to a blog post I came across…

“Though I am not an Austrian Economist, I present three of Friedrich August Hayek’s statements, from his book The Road To Serfdom (1944)

He stated: “the very men most anxious to plan society (are) the most dangerous if allowed to do so — and (they are) the most intolerant of the planning of others” page 93.

And: “It is, as it were, the lowest common denominator which unites the largest number of people. If a numerous group is needed, strong enough to impose their views on the values of life on all the rest, it will never be those with highly differentiated and developed tastes — it will be those who form the ‘mass’ in the derogatory sense of the term, the least original and independent, who will be able to put the weight of their numbers behind their particular ideals. Moreover, tyrants will often “be able to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently” page 138.

And: “Independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, noninterference with one’s neighbor and tolerance of the different, respect for custom and tradition, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority: Almost all the traditions and institutions in which democratic moral genius has found its most characteristic expression, and which in turn have molded the national character and the whole moral climate of England and America, are those which the progress of collectivism and its inherently centralistic tendencies are progressively destroying” page 219.”

In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools. Why would one of the best new teachers in the state be one of the first let go? Because her collective-bargaining contract requires staffing decisions to be made based on seniority.

Ms. Sampson got a layoff notice because the union leadership would not accept reasonable changes to their contract. Instead, they hid behind a collective-bargaining agreement that costs the taxpayers $101,091 per year for each teacher, protects a 0% contribution for health-insurance premiums, and forces schools to hire and fire based on seniority and union rules.

My state’s budget-repair bill, which passed the Assembly on Feb. 25 and awaits a vote in the Senate, reforms this union-controlled hiring and firing process by allowing school districts to assign staff based on merit and performance. That keeps great teachers like Ms. Sampson in the classroom.

Most states in the country are facing a major budget deficit. Many are cutting billions of dollars of aid to schools and local governments. These cuts lead to massive layoffs or increases in property taxes—or both.

In Wisconsin, we have a better approach to tackling our $3.6 billion deficit. We are reforming the way government works, as well as balancing our budget. Our reform plan gives state and local governments the tools to balance the budget through reasonable benefit contributions. In total, our budget-repair bill saves local governments almost $1.5 billion, outweighing the reductions in state aid in our budget.

While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest. We ask government workers to make a 5.8% contribution to their pensions and a 12.6% contribution to their health-insurance premium, both of which are well below what other workers pay for benefits. Our plan calls for Wisconsin state workers to contribute half of what federal employees pay for their health-insurance premiums. (It’s also worth noting that most federal workers don’t have collective bargaining for wages and benefits.)

For example, my brother works as a banquet manager at a hotel and occasionally works as a bartender. My sister-in-law works at a department store. They have two beautiful kids. They are a typical middle-class Wisconsin family. At the start of this debate, David reminded me that he pays nearly $800 per month for his family’s health-insurance premium and a modest 401(k) contribution. He said most workers in Wisconsin would love a deal like the one we are proposing.

The unions say they are ready to accept concessions, yet their actions speak louder than words. Over the past three weeks, local unions across the state have pursued contracts without new pension or health-insurance contributions. Their rhetoric does not match their record on this issue.

Local governments can’t pass budgets on a hope and a prayer. Beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools—as well as state and local governments—the tools to reward productive workers and improve their operations. Most crucially, our reforms confront the barriers of collective bargaining that currently block innovation and reform.

When Gov. Mitch Daniels repealed collective bargaining in Indiana six years ago, it helped government become more efficient and responsive. The average pay for Indiana state employees has actually increased, and high-performing employees are rewarded with pay increases or bonuses when they do something exceptional.

Passing our budget-repair bill will help put similar reforms into place in Wisconsin. This will be good for the Badger State’s hard-working taxpayers. It will also be good for state and local government employees who overwhelmingly want to do their jobs well.

In Wisconsin, we can avoid the massive teacher layoffs that schools are facing across America. Our budget-repair bill is a commitment to the future so our children won’t face even more dire consequences than we face today, and teachers like Ms. Sampson are rewarded—not laid off.

Taking on the status quo is no easy task. Each day, there are protesters in and around our state Capitol. They have every right to be heard. But their voices cannot drown out the voices of the countless taxpayers who want us to balance our budgets and, more importantly, to make government work for each of them.

… Local governments can’t pass budgets on a hope and a prayer. Beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools—as well as state and local governments—the tools to reward productive workers and improve their operations. Most crucially, our reforms confront the barriers of collective bargaining that currently block innovation and reform.

When Gov. Mitch Daniels repealed collective bargaining in Indiana six years ago, it helped government become more efficient and responsive. The average pay for Indiana state employees has actually increased, and high-performing employees are rewarded with pay increases or bonuses when they do something exceptional… continue by clicking on online.wsj.com

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Unions — in both the public and private sectors — have been thrust back into the national spotlight following weeks of unrest over proposed reforms, particularly in Wisconsin, but in other states as well. Countless commentators and analysts of all persuasions have offered their opinions on the matter. And the outcome of ongoing battles, all of them agree, will have far-reaching repercussions.

But what are the real issues? Every side in the debate is trying to frame its argument in terms of rights. And in a free society, workers would indeed have the right voluntarily to band together to form a union. But, freedom would also mean that workers would have a right not to join a union if they did not want to. And employers have rights, too — including the right to refuse negotiations with organized unions, to deny union demands, or even to fire and replace union members who (for example) walk off the job if their demands are not met.

In America, however, government has stepped in. Because of our labor laws, workers who do not want to join a union are forced to do so as a condition of employment at any company that has been unionized, unless the job is located in a “right to work” state. And the monopolistic power unions are able to exercise over employers’ labor forces via our labor laws infringe upon the rights of employers.

The ability to exercise monopolistic powers — whether possessed by a cartel of business interests made possible by government favoritism, or whether possessed by government-favored unions — are harmful to freedom, competition, and the overall economy. The fact that the monopolistic entity in question may be a labor union does not change the inherent nature of monopoly and the abuse of power that occurs when competition and choices are curtailed.

But public-sector unions — the question currently facing America — are fundamentally more monopolistic than their counterparts in the private sector. Private-sector unions may enjoy compulsory union membership, but they are at least subject to market limits. If a private-sector union demands too much from management, shareholders, and consumers, the firm will eventually fail as competitors not subject to those demands come to dominate the market. On the other hand, if an employer does not adequately compensate workers, market forces would eventually lead those employees to find a firm that will.

So in a sense, all parties in the private sector have a vested interest in maintaining reasonable working conditions and compensation. Otherwise, everyone suffers in the end. Of course, the same holds true whether or not workers are unionized, but in the private sector, monopoly bargaining is limited in its ability to wreak havoc.

But unions in the government sector are an entirely separate issue. Rather than being faced with market pressures to keep wages at reasonable levels, politicians currying favor with union bosses seem eager to provide perpetually greater concessions — without having to worry about staying competitive in the marketplace (government, after all, is a monopoly), and without having to take the money out of their own pockets since the costs can be passed on to the taxpayers. In fact, the concessions actually result in more money in politicians’ pockets via political contributions from the unions that got the concessions.

“You see, monopoly bargaining rights and forced union dues allow union bosses to elect the politicians who negotiate their compensation packages,” pointed out Campaign for Liberty President John Tate in an e-mail to supporters. “This rigged game has led to public employee benefit packages and pensions that are bankrupting state after state across the nation.”

Tate pointed out that if action isn’t taken, “public unions will continue to treat taxpayers as human ATM machines, who exist only to fund budget-busting pension and benefit schemes ‘won’ via monopoly bargaining and forced union dues extracted from taxpayers.”

Arthur Thompson, CEO of The John Birch Society, expressed similar concerns in his most recent weekly update. “If our public officials — that we elect — are not allowed to set the compensation and benefits for public employees, what does that make us, the taxpayer?” he wondered. “The taxpayer can just keep working to pay them no matter how they vote.”

On top of the obvious conflict of interest inherent in politicians and the labor bosses who helped elect them colluding to extract ever-more wealth from taxpayers, the fact that government “services” are often monopolized means that a strike by unionized public-sector workers can easily lead to disaster. And it has before. Even President Franklin Roosevelt, viewed by many as the original enabler of labor unions, opposed government-sector collective bargaining for that reason.

“The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,” Roosevelt asserted in a letter to the National Federation of Federal Employees cited by RealClearPolitics.com. “A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of government.”

Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, of course, is not advocating an end to public-sector unions. His proposal, aimed at shrinking a multi-billion dollar deficit, would eliminate collective bargaining by state- and local-employee unions in the areas of healthcare and pension benefits, but not for wage hikes not exceeding increases in the Consumer Pirce Limit.

But in Wisconsin — the first state to permit public-sector unions — and many other parts of America including Ohio and Indiana, labor leaders have rallied against what they call an assault on collective-bargaining “rights.” In reality, the unions’ power to monopolize the government labor force and compel taxpayers to pay for their demands is a privilege made possible by the state, not some unalienable right taxpayers are bound to respect. And numerous commentators and pro-liberty advocates have pointed this out, too.

Harvard economics Professor Robert Barro, for example, highlighted some of the obvious problems in a piece for the Wall Street Journal:

Labor unions like to portray collective bargaining as a basic civil liberty, akin to the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion. For a teachers union, collective bargaining means that suppliers of teacher services to all public school systems in a state — or even across states — can collude with regard to acceptable wages, benefits and working conditions. An analogy for business would be for all providers of airline transportation to assemble to fix ticket prices, capacity and so on. From this perspective, collective bargaining on a broad scale is more similar to an antitrust violation than to a civil liberty.

Libertarian commentator Sheldon Richman approached government-union problems from another angle, noting in a piece for The Freeman,

It is a grave mistake to treat so-called public employment like other employment.

Governments are monopolies that get their revenue by force, not through voluntary exchange. Thus they don’t face the market test of free competition, and they lack key price information with which to engage in economic calculation. The consequences of this difference are considerable.

Paleo-conservatives have also attacked the issue. “Since the 1960s, government unions have been able to sit behind closed doors with the politicians they put in office and write contracts, the cost of which is borne by taxpayers who have no one at the table,” wrote former Presidential candidate and frequent media pundit Pat Buchanan. “They call this collective bargaining. A more accurate term is collusive bargaining.”

And the battle currently raging in Wisconsin over the “rights” of government-employee unions will have broad implications for the whole country. Buchanan noted,

In Wisconsin, the die is cast and Walker cannot yield. For if he yields, the state and its 3,000 cities, counties, towns, and school districts will be forever at the mercy of these unions. If he yields, it will be a triumph for the tactics of intimidation, wildcat strikes and mass demonstrations to block legislative action.

If Walker yields, governors and legislators across America will read the tea leaves and back away from taking on government unions. That means higher and higher taxes, as in Illinois, and eventual sinking of the states into unpayable debt and default. Scott Walker cannot lose this fight, because his country cannot afford to have him lose it.

The stakes are indeed high. But for the sake of America, government budgets, and general sanity going forward, it is crucial that Gov. Walker win the battle. As The John Birch Society’s Arthur Thompson noted, and the facts have proven, this is an international phenomenon orchestrated behind the scenes by socialist and communist forces. If Americans cannot even rein in their servants, however slightly, the implications for the future are disastrous.

Communists squash individual liberty wherever they go. You have no individual rights or protection from the Mob.. and the Mob may take your property at will, by force. Remember, “personal” property includes you life.. and your property (life) is subject to the mob’s whim’s. See below.

We must look at this issue for what the American Communist Party considers it to be.. a fight between the “old American” values that value the individual… vs. the Collective values that use force to trample the rights to life and/or personal property for the individual. Karl Marx’s ideas were put into effect in many places… Everywhere it is imposed, the individual has very few rights and becomes dependent on the State for shelter, income, food. What kind of life is that?

Eric D. Weitz says that the mass killing in communist states are a natural consequence of the failure of the rule of law, seen commonly during periods of social upheaval in the 20th century. For both communist and non-communist mass killings, “genocides occurred at moments of extreme social crisis, often generated by the very policies of the regimes.”[34] They are not inevitable but are political decisions.[34]

Stephen Hicks of Rockford College ascribes the violence characteristic of twentieth-century socialist rule to these collectivist regimes’ abandonment of protections of civil rights and rejection of the values of civil society. Hicks writes that whereas “in practice every liberal capitalist country has a solid record for being humane, for by and large respecting rights and freedoms, and for making it possible for people to put together fruitful and meaningful lives”, in socialism “practice has time and again proved itself more brutal than the worst dictatorships prior to the twentieth century. Each socialist regime has collapsed into dictatorship and begun killing people on a huge scale.”[35]

The Black Book of Communism, a set of academic essays on mass killings under Communist regimes, details “‘crimes, terror, and repression’ from Russia in 1917 to Afghanistan in 1989”.[1](p x)[36](p727) Courtois claims an association between communism and criminality—”Communist regimes … turned mass crime into a full-blown system of government”[1](p4)—and says that this criminality lies at the level of ideology rather than state practice.[1](p2)

A coalition of socialists, government-union members, and other protestors — some of whom were reportedly bussed in from out of state — wreaked havoc in Madison, Wisconsin, in recent days while demonstrating against proposed budget cuts and a bill that would prevent most government employees from collectively demanding ever-increasing salaries and benefits.

The protests have become so intense — police estimated the number of demonstrators at around 25,000 — that Republican Gov. Scott Walker said he could be forced to call out the state’s National Guard to quell the disorder and keep certain state functions such as the prison system functioning. At least nine protestors had been arrested by Thursday afternoon, state officials reported.

Democrat lawmakers have fled the state in an effort to delay the proposals, prompting strong and swift Republican criticism. A vote cannot take place in the Senate unless at least one Democrat is present, and right now, all of them are reportedly waiting in Illinois.

Gov. Walker urged the missing legislators to quit their “stunt” and “do the job they’re paid to do.” Other Republican leaders suggested law enforcement should bring the legislators to work if they were still within state borders.

The rabid activists swarming the capitol in Madison were caught vandalizing property, distributing subversive literature, putting fear into innocents, pounding on legislators’ doors and windows, shouting, and furiously banging drums, according to witnesses. Some of the protestors were videotaped carrying signs comparing Governor Walker to Hitler, Mussolini, and deposed Egyptian despot Hosni Mubarak. Other more violent placards featured him with gun crosshairs trained on his face. One sign likened budget cuts to rape. And the mob left behind mountains of trash in its wake.

Among the flyers being distributed was one from the World Socialist website entitled “Unite workers and youth to defeat Wisconsin budget cuts.” Produced by the Socialist Equality Party and International Students for Social Equality, the document urged protestors to use the demonstration in Wisconsin as “the starting point for a mass movement.”

Claiming that the “economic and political system has failed,” the groups exhorted demonstrators to reject both parties, create “independent” committees of students and workers, nationalize corporations, seize the wealth, and usher in socialism. “The capitalist system has failed and must be replaced with a new type of society based on social need,” the flyer stated, promoting the transformation of businesses into “publicly owned and democratically controlled entities.”

Another flyer from the protests obtained by The New American, headlined “Collective Bargaining is a MUST!” called for higher taxes on corporations and “the rich.” It proposed a series of new taxes and tax increases to balance the state budget, urging readers to visit socialistworker.org for more information and updates.

People who have been following the demonstrations closely reported that Madison was a chaotic scene. “The place is under siege by union thugs, rent-a-mobs, and high schools kids let out of school because the teachers have abandoned their posts,” explained The New American magazine’s Ann Shibler, who has received continuous updates on the protest as it has developed from sources within the Capitol.

“That beautiful and recently restored building has been trashed. Bands of thugs are roaming the halls, blockading restrooms, stairwells, and elevators,” she said. “They scream and yell, bang drums, and run around with clenched fists, banging on the windows and doors of the locked legislators’ offices.”

She also said students were being used for political purposes and that “thugs” had been bussed in from Illinois. “Keep in mind the majority of these thugs are teachers, who are teaching impressionable children,” she said, noting that Gov. Walker should have called in the National Guard already to prevent the “teachers’ union mobocracy” from overrunning the capitol. “I would also fire every teacher who abandoned their post over this across the state.”

Shibler said people stuck inside their offices without bathrooms were asking for the American people’s prayers. “Never seen anything like it in my life,” she noted.

A State Senate staff member reported similar lunacy at the Capitol over the three days of protests. “The police have advised that we lock our doors,” said staffer Jolene Churchill in an e-mail Thursday. “Groups of young kids are marching through the halls yelling at the top of their lungs,” she explained, noting that drums were banging, restrooms and elevators were blockaded, and that there had been vandalism on Wednesday.

Despite the fear, chaos and damage they inflicted, organizers and protest leaders were quite happy with the demonstrations. “I have never been prouder of our movement than I am at this moment,” Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt told the crowd.

The legislation that prompted the outburst would force many state employees to contribute more to their pensions and health benefits. It would also prohibit most government workers from collectively demanding higher salaries above the Consumer Price Index, stop unions from forcing public employees to pay dues, and more. The proposals would also cut spending in an effort to rein in the state’s massive budget deficit.

Former “community organizer” and current President Barack Obama jumped into the fray on Wednesday, too. In an interview with a Wisconsin television station, he said the measures seemed like “an assault on unions.” Obama urged viewers not to blame government employees for all the budget problems. “I think it is very important for us to understand that public employees, they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends. These are folks who are teachers and they’re firefighters and they’re social workers and they’re police officers.”

The protests were organized by government-union bosses, the Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America, and a coalition of socialist groups. But despite the size and ferocity of the protests, the Governor said he has received thousands of e-mails on the subject, most supporting his plan. Very few Republicans have wavered in their support for the proposals, and with recent electoral gains, the party can pass the legislation without support from Democrats — assuming the run-away lawmakers come back to the Capitol and allow a vote to take place.

State governments across America are wrestling with massive budget deficits and unfunded pension liabilities that threaten to bankrupt their treasuries. Numerous Governors have already started the process of reducing state-employee pensions and benefits in states from New Jersey to Florida. Municipalities and local governments are facing similar scenarios, so observers expect the battle to intensify before the problems are resolved.

Fitzgerald’s description of the problems in Wisconsin mirror the dire situation in Oregon.. and many other states. We have allowed Statism to blossom-believing that we can have something for nothing. Well, it’s time to grow up. Mature and conservative ideals made this country the land of milk and honey. But we took our eye off the ball.. we allowed the growth of entitlements of all sorts to creep into our system. So much so that now we’re faced with enormous debt, inflation, a plunging dollar, and efforts by big labor to stick a fork into every tax payer in the nation. It’s time to take sides.

Vote Conservative before you’re living hand to mouth and dependent upon a government bureaucrat for food, lodging and healthcare. Marxism.. it’s all about creating dependent class and then dictating all manner of thought, behavior and much, much more.